A suprise win for the elves, as the DD players fell over their own feet in the beginning of the first half, only to regain balance too late to make a difference.
The weather was not great but fine for BB (4) as 74000 fans (33, 41) showed up for this fairly unimportant match, as DD was already sure to move on, and the Renegades only hoped to get past this match against the elf bashers alive.
It sure did not look to go that way for Renegades, although all 3 niggling players were ready the treeman had forgotten about the game and did not show up in time for first half. Furthermore the elfs lost the kick-off and had to kick to DD.
It was a clearly shaken team that took the pitch, and this became obvious as the team kicker Dodger Strangelove in an effort to put the ball at the back of the pitch, made such a bad kick that it resultet in a touch back, and the ball was handed of to Rigor Mortis.
Things keept looking nasty with a KO and a BH in the first turn, and a kill in the second turn. It was Rastafa Elf Basher who piled on Artanis Van Ity to make “only” a BH, but it was on a blodge player! The top killer on DD Ramses the 5th took out Fingolfin Fairhair but he was miracusly healed by the team apotech.
But while all this happened DDs players had some problems getting into the match. First turn a re-roll was spend on the first go for it. And later dirty player Argos was BH in a dodge, when he was trying to reach wardancer Celemir Showof for an important foul.
Second turn also took a re-roll on the first go for it, and at the end of the turn a second go for it by a skeleton also failed as he was trying to close the cage.
The cage held up, but to close it completely in the third turn Rastafa Elf Basher had to go for it once, and made a double 1, loosing DD their 3rd re-rolls in 3 turns, and in each turn a DD player fell over their own (or someone elses) feet.
The cage was now attacked, but it should have been possible to close it tight again in turn 4, had it not been for Tri Octavius who on the turns first block rolled double skull and with no re-roll he fell and was SI MNG by Haldir Denődel.
Then wardancer Celemir Showof blocked the ball from Rigor Mortis and the other Dancer Celeborn Elyan blitzed away Eata Corpus retrived the ball and ran down towards the end zone for a TD, safely guarded by two other elfs.
However, this time Bram Stoker finally made something copmletely crazy work for DD. After everyone else on DD had moved into position to force a quick TD, he took the chance with a blitz, dodging into the cage with a 6 and then Celeborn Elyan was suddenly not so happy he had placed himself on the side line, as a two dice against block (it is a St 4 wardancer) came up with two arrows and off he went for a crowd KO (This move had 7.4% chance of succes :P ). After that Bram Stoker tried to dodge away and now of course he fell!
Sadly for DD the ball ended up lying freely close to their end zone and there were no players left that could have run to it. Hence it was easy for Dodger Strangelove to pick it up and make a TD to 1-0 in turn 5.
The wardancer did not wake up and neither did the other KOed elf. Also the dirty player Argos did not regenerate but Tri Octavius recovered completely from his SI.
Still without a treeman DD was ready to bash some the 8 elfs left on pitch, but were cheated by a blitz, and soon alot of elves came running down DDs field. The ball was however, recovered by Eata Corpus but an inaccurate pass came down in open ground, and the elfs recovered it and waited to make a second TD til the final turn of the half. It was Gildar Raindreamer who made it 2-0.
However, before this the, second wardancer Celemir Showof was also send into the KO box by Lex Liche and neither of them returned for the last half. However, the 3rd KOed elf came back along with a very embarased treeman Birchfoot Slumberjack, but the elfs were very hapy to see him.
In second half it looked like the elfs would make a fast TD, but a failed cath even with a re-roll (double 1), left them in a very bad position. But both mummies came up with 3 arrows, and then a double skull had to be re-rolled. Again it was Tri Octavius who rolled this, but this time the re-roll resulted in a KOed elf. However, before the ball could be picked up a stupid skeleton decided to take a block without re-roll and got both down.
Feeling bad about himself turning up so late and wanting to showoff his worth, treeman Birchfoot Slumberjack made an unimportant Blitz against a skeleton. In the proces he almost tripped over an old orc skull trying to get there but the shouting of team captain Gildar Raindreamer preventet the complete disaster, though there now was no Re-Roll to use in the following pass action.
Again the elfs tried to score putting Finrod Featherfoot in the end zone. This turned out to be a bad idea, as a long pass was inaccurate and the ball went into the crowd twice before ending in open ground. Lex Liche pushed the poor guy into the crowd for a stun, and Rigor Mortis picked up the ball.
For the rest of the match, the ball was pretty safe with top scorer Rigor Mortis in a cage of 3 wights at the sideline (and no wardancers to jump in), and the only fun stuff was the two times when Zed the Zombie yealed timber as the tree fell over in both a one dice, and a two dice against block. Also Rastafa Elf Basher wished to pile on the tree, but in six dices only got one both down at last, but although he had to choose to fall himself and could hence not pile on, he broke AV without might blow anyway (11!). Still it only resulted in a stunned result, and with only one turn left it did not really matter. The tree by the way showed he was ready for the match now, by getting up both times he was turned over by Zed, but did not really make any important stuff this match.
In the end Rigor Mortis made a pretty safe TD (2 go for it with re-roll) for a reduction to 2-1, the result of the match, and keept his place at the top of the topscoring leaderboard with 9 TD in 8 matches (of which he has only played 7).
For once the Renegades made a decent earning with 90 k vs 50 k for DD, but as always it is when DD plays wood elfs that their FF increases even when loosing!?! wheras Rengades fans was only pleased with the result and no new fans came along.
Haldir Denődel was elected MVP for flattening Tri Octavius at a very important time in first half giving Renegades the lead next turn.
Eata Corpus was elected MVP for his brave effort to give DD a chance for a faster TD, by standing alone down the elf side of the pitch for most of second half, taking one blitz after the other without getting stunned once. In the end Rigor Mortis of course decided to score himself, preventing this MVP from giving Eata Corpus some better skills at blocking :/
With no permanent injuries and a victory it was a great match for the Renegades, and although DD must have been disapointed to loose to elves, they did get a kill, a TD for their top scorer and the only SI regenerated, so they have a full team for their up and comming quater final, where they will hopefully by a little more allert and on their feet!
